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Thanks goldensmom. I have the feeling that as more people/organizations are becoming aware of recycling, they might be getting overloaded and have to turn things down, or make different rules of what is acceptable.
To be honest with you, I don't trust some organizations/recycling businesses, etc. to be the most environmentally concerned people. So maybe I'm "doomed" to tear it all down myself, and take the recyclable stuff to a place that just does paper.....or, like TMS does, burn it in the fireplace as kindling. A few years ago, I carefully flattened and bound up all my cardboard and set all my recyclables out in a special "recyclables" container provided by the business that picks it up. One day, I saw the trash truck come and dump it all in with his trash. I ran him down and screamed at him. He didn't have a clue what I was talking about. That business quit the recycling part, and now I take it all myself to the city street department that has bins for stuff. And I take all my paper to Abitibi sites. Yeah, I'm a control freak.

I am surprised that recycle would not take intact books as that is how I disposed of a set encyclopedias. It was sad because they were in new condition but I'd not looked at them in years and they were taking up space. Have you asked your local school or library how they dispose of old books?

My library sent 100,000 items to B-logistics annually for "recycling." When asked what they did with items that did not sell, they replied that they "recycled" those items. I did not inquire further, or press for information on what exactly that means because I didnt want to know. Each year we netted $$$ from this business relationship.

We boxed up the books and other items, put them on pallets, and those pallets were loaded into a semi truck a few times a year where they were driven from St. Louis to Colorado.

You all would be surprised, or maybe not, at the number of people who called us at the public library to insist that we should take their old encyclopedia sets because we should take their old encyclopedia sets. They didnt want them, but we should want them!

Oh, and also, we wont collect anyone's encyclopedia set to drive them to Colorado where they will be "recycled."

A hint for getting rid of things:
Here in Colorado and a few other places we have RAFT (resource area for teachers). They will take a lot of things and then package them into science kits or sell in bulk to teachers super cheap. I can fill a cart for $10. They get a lot of promotional items that don't all get used at an event like water bottles or promotional bags. They do get books but I am not sure that they would take that many encyclopedias. The people who work there are amazing at using things in different ways. One guy I still remember made a carefully painted chess set out of champagne corks. Business that went paperless send a lot of old file folders and the tag board is something I buy, of I use the magnets and art postcards for projects from the art museum. So my thought really is making art books out of them. Gluing several pages together, painting over them and then embellishing. Pinterest has some amazing ideas here!

Our encyclopedia came from the grocery story. Seems like it was Safeway and a new book would come out once a month. My mom bought them and I read every one cover to cover. I'm that geeky. I loved them and thought it was one of the best purchases she ever made for us. We lived out in the country so getting to the library was a rare thing. I have no idea what happened to them. Maybe there were given to another family with kids after we grew up. Can't imagine having the internet at a kid. My head would have exploded. Oh how times have changed.

I looked up Books for Africa. It costs 50 cents to ship a book there. There is a publication date age limit, which I had not remembered when my elementary school participated in that or a similar program. At the time we we were told old/used books are fine as they are to help people learn English not teach content. Fiction was accepted also.